A dress, nearly every day.

Month: December 2011

Getting an obsession is like getting a cold, only over a longer time period. First there's that little tickle in the back of your throat, and then you feel a little achy, and it's harder to get up in the morning, and the next thing you know you're sneezing at a Gatling-gun pace and getting carded when you try to buy Dayquil.

Sewing obsessions have the same progression … first you start to notice something you've never noticed before, and then you start thinking "huh … maybe I could make that," and pretty soon you have fifty browser tabs open, you're abusing Pinterest, and you're thinking about the shoes you're going to wear with a dress you haven't even made yet.

I'm a little bit worried that I'm at the tickly-throat stage of an obsession with guipure lace, which is just FLAT OUT DUMB. First of all, the number of occasions where I could wear a guipure lace dress in a single year is measured in the average number of fingers in obscene gestures. (And that's in a year where I decide to get married. Again.) Secondly, I've never, ever sewn with lace, and thirdly, it's ungodly expensive, and fourthly, well, fourthly, I already have a curio cabinet of previous sewing obsessions, which, like all good obsessions, are only dormant, not dead. (Shirtdresses: I am talking about you.)

But: isn't it pretty?

So: is there any kind of zinc lozenge you can take to ward off a new sewing obsession? Please send help.

Man, did I have a GREAT time in Australia. Melbourne was gorgeous (and not just because it's coming on summer there) and delicious and everyone was so nice! Totally worth the marathon flight to get there, and I am definitely going back as soon as I can …

Posts are coming this week about the fabric I bought in Tokyo (Tokyo is on the way to Australia. If you are me and my preferred frequent-flier airline), a report from the book event in Melbourne, and a couple more Vogue 8728s that I managed to squeeze in before leaving this hemisphere.

I know some folks have asked to see me in a 8728, so here's a nice picture from the lovely Vireya (she's the tall and elegant person in this picture):

The sweater is a couple of years old now, from J. Crew … the watch is this one, and the glasses are new and pink (from Zoff in Japan!) and don't really go, but they were new and I had to wear them. (You know how it is.)